32 Delightful Star Wars: The Last Jedi Cameos You Might Have Missed

Now that The Last Jedi is finally in theaters, a lot of its secrets have come tumbling out. We’re not talking about who is related to whom, or which beloved character didn’t make it out of the movie alive—we mean all the little cameos and casting Easter eggs that Rian Johnson peppered into his first of many Star Wars films. Spoilers for the plot of The Last Jedi below . . . but really, if you’re reading this and haven’t seen the movie yet, then the dark side has already won. Also, if you’re in a mood to argue over what technically constitutes a “cameo,” then this is not the article you’re looking for.

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Prince William and Prince Harry, Tom Hardy, and Gary Barlow as Stormtroopers

We’ll start with the most popular and also most controversial entry on the list. It has long been rumored that Prince William and Prince Harry, actor Tom Hardy, and pop legend Gary Barlow would appear as stormtroopers in The Last Jedi. The scene, reportedly, took place in an elevator where the four soldiers were guarding John Boyega’s Finn. Boyega has since said the scene was cut (certainly no such elevator scene exists in the finished film) and told ITV: “They cut it out of the film. I did personally apologize to [the princes] yesterday and said, ‘Sorry you were cut out of the film.’ Will was like, ‘I guess I just need to work more on the skill.’” Cameras may have even caught this moment between William and Boyega.

But Boyega’s reps also confirmed to the Daily Mail that the actor was only joking, elsewhere, when he said the royal cameos had been cut. So the mystery of the four famous stormtroopers continues. One popular new theory is that the princes appear as the pair of executioner stormtroopers who menace Finn and Rose and cock their weapons in a little bit of coordinated choreography. William and Harry do know their way around long-handled objects.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Slowen-Lo

Far less controversial is the notion that Johnson favorite Joseph Gordon-Levitt would grab a cameo. During press leading up to the premiere, Johnson challenged fans to see if they could spot which alien the Brick and Looper star was voicing. But the cat’s out of the bag now: Gordon-Levitt laid on a thick Southern accent to play Canto Bight resident “Slowen-Lo,” who was so angry that Rose and Finn parked their cruiser on the beach that he blew up their spot to the casino guards. The name of the character, a riff on the song “Slow and Low,” is the latest Beastie Boys reference to make it into the Star Wars franchise, alongside Ello Asty (“Hello Nasty”) and Ilco Munica (“Ill Communication”). Should we expect the surviving Beastie Boys to grab cameos in Episode IX?

By Nancy Moran/Getty Images

The Hamill Family as Various

Okay, yes, you know that Mark Hamill plays Luke Skywalker in this film. But he also has a second role much further down the credits: Dobbu Scay. We can all assume that Hamill, who has made quite the post-Luke career for himself as a voice actor, is also an alien in the film—and Lucasfilm Story Group executive Pablo Hidalgo may have revealed which. When asked on Twitter for “the name of the Canto Bight patron who plays BB-8 like a slot machine,” Hidalgo teased: “I’ll just say this - he’s listed in the credits as the second role someone very prominent in the cast plays. :)” Sounds about right! According to Entertainment Weekly, Hidalgo came up with the name Dobbu Scay as an an anagram for Lucasfilm editor Bob Ducsay. Hamill’s children Nathan,Chelsea, and Griffin all appear as Resistance fighters under Poe’s command in the hangar on Crait. This will mark the second Star Wars cameo for Nathan, who appeared almost 18 years ago as a guard in The Phantom Menace.

By Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Warwick Davis as Wodibin

Warwick Davis—who played Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi and had a few roles in The Phantom Menace—plays another Canto Bight alien called Wodibin who, along with his cohorts Thodibin and Dodibin, make up something called “The Winning Three.” The amphibian-esque aliens don’t necessarily cheat, but they are preternaturally lucky. I have a feeling we’ve just barely scratched the surface when it comes to famous faces hiding under alien makeup in Canto Bight.

Left, courtesy of HBO; right, courtesy of Lucasfilm

Kate Dickie as Hux’s First Order Monitor, Plus So Many More Game of Thrones People

In The Force Awakens,Game of Thrones star Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Jojen Reed) showed up briefly as a First Order officer—and Kate Dickie, a.k.a. Sansa’s mentally ill aunt Lysa Arryn, showed up in almost the exact same spot during the opening minutes of The Last Jedi. Given that Nina Gold casts both the HBO series and the Lucasfilm franchise, the prevalence of Westerosi faces shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Force Awakens had Brodie-Sangster, Max von Sydow (Three-Eyed Raven), Jessica Henwick (Nymeria Sand), Gwendoline Christie (Brienne), Mark Stanley (Grenn), Miltos Yerolemou (patron in Maz Kanata’s bar), and Emun Elliott (Marillion).

The Last Jedi has Dickie as well as Ralph Ineson (Dagmer Cleftjaw) as a senior First Order officer, Amira Ghazalla (Dothraki Crone) as Captain Canady’s First Order commander, and Patrick O’Kane (Jaqen’s new face) as another of Hux’s First Order officers. But perhaps the most delightful Game of Thrones actor appearance belongs to Mark Lewis Jones as Captain Canady, the sneering commander of the First Order dreadnought. Jones’s imperious performance is a sharp contrast to his role as Tyrion Lannister’s Season 1 ally: Shagga, son of Dolf, of the Stone Crows.

Left, courtesy of HBO

Justin Theroux as the Master Codebreaker and Lily Cole as Lovey

Here’s where we could, if we were inclined, argue over what does and doesn’t constitute a cameo. Justin Theroux (The Leftovers, Mr. Jennifer Aniston) pops up briefly as a smarmy, James Bond-esque high roller and code-breaker. Star Wars the Last Jedi the Visual Dictionary has some fun background on the code-breaker, including the detail that, thanks to his hacking skills, he’s not allowed to play any electronic games in the Canto Bight casino. We also know he once had something resembling a romance with Lupita Nyong’o’s Maz Kanata.

Left, courtesy of Channel 5

But it’s not Maz Kanata by his side in the Canto Bight casino. That’s model-actress Lily Cole as a mysterious figure known only as “Lovey.” She has a fabulous backstory in Star Wars the Last Jedi the Visual Dictionary, where it’s revealed the code-breaker’s companion is closely studying him (and refuses to reveal her real name) because she hopes to usurp his title one day.

Right, by J. Vespa/Getty Images

Noah Segan as X-Wing Pilot Starck

In addition to Gordon-Levitt, Johnson fans were absolutely expecting to spot actor Noah Segan—who has appeared not only in all of Johnson’s films, but also in one of the director’s episodes of Breaking Bad. You can clearly see him twice in the hangar of Leia’s Resistance ship. In one shot, just after Poe returns from shooting down the dreadnought, Segan’s fighter pilot character Starck cruises by the camera next to an alien on some kind of motored vehicle. You see him one more time, knocking on the glass window of his cockpit, just before he and most of the other Resistance X-wing pilots get blown up during Kylo Ren’s air attack. Johnson’s continued loyalty to Segan and Gordon-Levitt, who were with him since the beginning, is enormously endearing.

Once again, we can argue over whether or not to consider one of the most recognizable roles in the franchise a “cameo.” But not everyone knows that there’s a new actor underneath that brown fuzzy suit. Finnish basketball player Joonas Suotamo started his work as a double for original Chewbacca, 73-year-old Peter Mayhew, in The Force Awakens. But now Mayhew, who has had some health problems in recent years, is officially retiring—and Suotamo wrote this touching letter to the fan favorite who came before him.

Though Mayhew persisted in playing some stationary shots of Chewie in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, Suotamo will take over the role full-time for Solo: A Star Wars Story in 2018. Suotamo’s Instagram is, by the way, a delight for any Star Wars fan.

Though Johnson revealed that he had put a few of his director friends in The Last Jedi, it took me three careful watches to find famously floppy-haired Edgar Wright in soft focus behind Poe Dameron in the hangar on Crait. On Monday, Wright made it easier for fans to spot him by posting a photo of himself, brother Oscar, frequent Wright collaboratorLeo Thompson, and director Joe Cornish all in character. Cornish and Edgar Wright often get credit for discovering actor Boyega, who starred in their 2011 film Attack the Block.

Left, by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images; right, courtesy of Lucasfilm

Gareth Edwards as Resistance Trench Soldier

Rogue One director Gareth Edwards, on the other hand, is much easier to find. You can see him looking on in confusion as his fellow soldier licks the white stuff on the ground of Crait and declares it “salty.” Edwards gave Johnson a cameo in his Star Wars film as an Imperial Technician, and The Last Jedi director returned the favor.

Left, by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images; right, courtesy of Lucasfilm

Frank Oz as Yoda

Listen: as long as there are new Chewbaccas popping up, it’s best not to take anything for granted. But yes, of course, that is the legendary Frank Oz voicing Jedi Master Yoda. (His voice was also used during Rey’s vision in The Force Awakens.) Oz had been instructed not to discuss Star Wars at all in any interviews for the past year (at least), but still: rumors of Yoda’s return leaked out early. Up until the end, Boyega was nobly trying to keep Yoda’s return under wraps—but apparently, nobody told Hamill to keep mum. The actor coyly tweeted: “Would this be considered a SPOILER? #KeepTheSecretsOfVIII #Shhhhhh” when Oz appeared on the red carpet last weekend for The Last Jedi premiere.

Courtesy of Lucasfilm

Andrew Jack as General Ematt

Jack gets a nice marquee moment in the third act of The Last Jedi as he strides out across the salty plain of Crait, leaving red footprints in his wake. Jack’s General Ematt also appeared in The Force Awakens. But what’s fun about this line-less role is that Jack’s main gig at Lucasfilm is as a dialect coach. He helped shape the accents of The Force Awakens,Rogue One,The Last Jedi, and the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Left, courtesy of Lucasfilm; right, courtesy of Amazon Prime Studio

Hugh Skinner as Holdo’s First Officer

Skinner is a British actor whom you might recognize from The Windsors as Prince William, Poldark as the incredibly named Unwin Trevaunance, or—my particular favorite performance—the petulantly foppish Sir George Howard in Harlots. He’ll also be playing a young version of Colin Firth in the upcoming sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. But the reason I’ve included Holdo’s right-hand man here is that Skinner also appeared as Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s nice-but-maybe-wrong-for-her boyfriend in the TV series Fleabag. Waller-Bridge has a significant role in next year’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, making Fleabag an unexpected breeding ground for future Star Wars actors.

Chewing Gum star Michaela Coel was reluctant to call her Last Jedi appearance a cameo. She told Complex earlier this year: “I'm so serious. It’s literally, I [sit] on the spaceship and I say three words. And they probably didn’t even make the movie.” They did! Coel appears as a Resistance monitor who declares “they found us” early on in the film. Singer Ellie Goulding also pops up as one of the good guys. But the bigger mystery among the Resistance is whether James Corden appears (briefly) before being blown to smithereens. Eagle-eyed tweeters think they saw him, but here, again, Hidalgo has the answer. He tweeted: “Sounds like they’re confusing Mr. Corden with the pilot played by Jamie Christopher.”

But British comedy legend Adrian Edmondson does appear as First Order Captain Peavey, and Johnson recently shared a mocked-up photo from production complete with a classic “Ade” catchphrase.

In addition to this trio, there are a number of famous (or quasi-famous) voices which crop up in The Last Jedi.Matthew Wood (a prominent sound engineer and the voice of General Grievous) and Sam Witwer (Starkiller in The Force Unleashed, Palpatine in Rebels) are both credited as “additional voices.” It’s possible they joined the most famous credited Additional Voice on The Last Jedi, composer Michael Giacchino, in recording the eerie whispering chant that lures Rey to the Jedi tree. According to Entertainment Weekly, “the Lucasfilm sound editors had a group of 20 actors in a vocal ‘loop group’ to create crowd noises and other effects—and one of the participants lending his own voice was Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino,” who directed the mysterious Jedi chant.

Though I can’t say who or where, I also know of a few film bloggers who scored voice cameos in the film. Johnson has always enjoyed a close, convivial relationship with the online media (have you ever heard him play the banjo on Slashfilmcast?), so it’s not surprising that the very loyal director would reward those writers who backed him from the start.

Left, by CJ Rivera/Getty Images; right, courtesy of Lucasfilm

Gary Fisher as Space Gary

As I said before, there’s no telling who you’ll find under alien makeup in Canto Bight. But the most delightful appearance, for Star Wars fans, has to belong to Carrie Fisher’s dog, Gary, who appears under a bit of prosthetics as a pet for one of the casino’s high rollers.

Photo: Photographed exclusively for V.F. by Annie Leibovitz. For The Last Jedi: costume design by Michael Kaplan; production design by Rick Heinrichs. For V.F.: set design by Mary Howard. For details, go to VF.com/credits.

Photographed exclusively for V.F. by Annie Leibovitz. For The Last Jedi: costume design by Michael Kaplan; production design by Rick Heinrichs. For V.F.: set design by Mary Howard. For details, go to VF.com/credits.